Etc. Competing chefs are Jaime Martinez of Aji Latin American Restaurant, Kyle Mendenhall of The Kitchen Cafe and Ryan Cunningham of RollinGreens mobile food truck. Dinner with Colorado ingredients prepared by Pieter Dijkstra of A Spice of Life and Juliette Wells of Everybody Eats!

Ian Jenkins found his passion on an ashram in India in 2008.

"They were teaching about selfless service and activity in the world," he says.

The community included farms and gardens and a recycling center.

"Basically the idea was that there would be no waste, that it would be as self-sufficient as possible," Jenkins says. "It just seemed from my own observation of where society and technology was bringing us that we were becoming more disconnected from the land and where our food came from."

Once a person discovers such a passion, though, it's not so easy to bring it home and make it real. Jenkins tried "wwoofing" -- working on farms for food and a place to stay through Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms. For several months, he spent time on farms in Northern California and Oregon, but he didn't gain the skills needed to run a farm.

Advertisement

Then he heard about a program in Boulder County, the Farmer Cultivation Center, and arrived in May to begin working on a quarter-acre plot of land while receiving hands-on instruction from a trained farm manager. Jenkins is one of three student farmers currently working at the center, which is run by nonprofit Everybody Eats! The group is holding a fundraising dinner Thursday at which several local chefs will compete for the title of Flatiron Chef.

The group that is now Everybody Eats! got its start fighting genetically modified organisms (GMOs) as the Colorado Genetic Engineering Action Network. But, says founder Dave Georgis, the group "changed our focus. We wanted to be building something instead of fighting. We changed our mission to promoting small, local agriculture. It's kind of an unassailable assertion."

Georgis took a year off from his job as a mechanical engineer and, with his partner, personal chef Juliette Wells, worked to get a teaching farm started on 31/2 acres they leased from Shepherd Valley Waldorf School.

"It is a zero-dollar lease, a relationship thing. They wanted to have farming happening there," Georgis says.

The farm supplies shares of Community Supported Agriculture crops to families from the school and also makes deliveries to workplaces. The idea is for students to learn all aspects of farming, including marketing and business skills, on their own quarter-acre plot. Tuition is free for the two-year program. Georgis says income from the CSA, farm stand and other marketing venues funds the salary of farm manager Stephen Cochenour and a good chunk of operations costs.

'It's just hard.'

For the students, the approach is just as practical.

"The goal of Everybody Eats! and the Farmer Cultivation Center is to add new farmers into Boulder County," says Cochenour, who also teaches urban farming at Front Range Community College.

However, he says, the goal is not that easy to achieve.

"The reality is that (farming) is hard. It's just hard," he says. "This summer was a pretty rough one."

The farm started the year with seven interns but now has three. Georgis says the attrition rate is pretty typical of similar programs he has studied.

"(Many students are) very idealistic," he says. "They're coming at it (as) they want to save the world with great organic food. It's (still) a positive outcome if they realize, 'Oh, this is a lot of work. It's very hard and labor intensive, very intense.' "

Better, he says, that they learn what farming really is before they invest money and perhaps deter other would-be farmers through potential failure.

"They decided on our dime, with our risk, it's not for them, versus them investing a lot of money in starting a farm but finding out halfway through the season that they can't handle it," he says.

For those who stick with it, the program can help with the steep learning curve of farming and marketing.

"When they start their farm, they know what they're getting into," Georgis says.

Growing veggies and business

What makes a good farmer?

"The word that keeps coming to mind is that you have to be stubborn," says Cochenour, the farm manager. "A lot of times it's not easy to come out to the farm on another 98-degree day, to put in that effort when you're exhausted and really struggling."

Jenkins, a farming student, has had a few dark nights of the soul, if a "night" can be constituted as a searing afternoon where waves of heat rise unrelentingly off the dirt.

However, he adds, that practice connects him to the land and his vision of the future, which is living on the land, preferably with a group of people, with as little impact as possible.

"It's really about remembering God in those moments," he says. "When it gets really hard . . . I just pray. It brings me through those moments. I notice the bigger picture of what I'm trying to do."

But handling the vicissitudes of nature is only half the battle, if that. To be successful, a farmer must coax those vegetables out of the earth and get them into the hand of a consumer, who, with the other hand, then forks over some green stuff that's not edible.

For many would-be farmers, the business aspect turns out to be the most difficult row to hoe.

"There are some incredible growers who really just want to be gardeners," Cochenour says. "Which is great. That strengthens the local food economy, as well."

But if a person wants to make a living from farming, the business side demands its due. To that end, the second year of the program concentrates on understanding how much it costs to grow each crop and establishing business relationships and ways to market produce.

"The thing that separates a good market farmer from one who's struggling is that they look at the whole picture from an economic standpoint," Cochenour says. "(They realize) 'I'm not going to grow sweet corn, because I can't produce it for less than $1.25 an ear.' Having that business savvy is pretty vital."

Everybody Eats! founder Georgis says the program is also working to help farmers find new ways to reach consumers, even beyond markets, farm stands and CSAs in which customers pick up their weekly crop share at the farm.

Georgis has worked to establish relationships with local companies in which CSA shares are delivered to the workplace. Currently, the farm delivers to Rally Software, Mountain Edge Fitness and Case Logic.

Erin Rae Humbach, partner relations manager at Rally, says 11 people participate in the CSA program at the company, some splitting shares.

"I think that it was a huge perk to have (the farm) be able to come and deliver to employees," she says. And (the delivery is) toward the end of the day, where they can go home and be with their family instead of having to make that extra trip (to pick up a share.)"

Humbach says the company helps subsidize employees' health club memberships and is considering a similar perk for those who belong to a CSA.

"We believe individuals should have a healthy work-life balance," she says. "Part of that is be able to exercise and take care of yourself. Eating well is closely aligned with that, and (CSAs) support local food."

Jenkins says he definitely needs the business training he'll receive in the second year of the program.

"I'm not a business-minded person," he says. "The idea of this program is that we'll come away with the knowledge about how to run a farm that would be successful. It's two wings. You need both wings to succeed. The idea behind this program is to get both aspects."

MacIntyre feels Colorado is capable of making run at bowl gameCU BUFFS FALL CAMPWhen: 29 practices beginning Wednesday morning 8:30-11 a.m. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday practices are open to the media and public next week. Full Story

It didn't take long for Denver music observers to notice Plume Varia. Husband and wife Shon and Cherie Cobbs formed the band only two years ago, but after about a year they started finding themselves on best-of lists and playing the scene's top venues. Full Story